The White House on Tuesday hosted a conference to discuss new initiatives in the public and private sectors to integrate resilience concepts into commercial and residential building design, standards and codes.
Those efforts are aimed to help communities build safer and resilient houses, workplaces and schools as well as to manage the potential impacts of climate change on facilities, the White House said Tuesday.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development plans to review the agency’s building construction requirements in a move to align program requirements with current resilience model building codes and standards.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency will collaborate with the National Institute of Building Sciences to examine the cost-effectiveness of hazard mitigation systems.
FEMA also looks to incentivize organizations that adopt and enforce building codes at the state and local levels through its Public Assistance Program.
The General Services Administration aims to establish a decision-making framework to for customer agencies to identify and address climate-related risks across their supply chains.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology is developing tornado hazard maps and a performance-based standard meant to help architects design buildings that can withstand debris and high winds.
The Army Corps of Engineers debuted a website that offers multiple resources for resilient building codes, while the Environmental Protection Agency plans to release its “Smart Growth Code Fixes for Climate Adaptation” report soon.